Journal
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDIOLOGY
Volume 59, Issue 8, Pages 567-573Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/14992027.2020.1773550
Keywords
hearing aids; use; non-use; difficulty; survey
Funding
- NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre
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Objective:To report a robust measure of the proportion of adults who do not use their hearing aids. Design:Data on hearing aid use was extracted from national household survey data, from 2004 to 2018 in Wales, UK. Study sample:A representative sample of 10,000 to 16,000 adults per year. Results:Self-reported hearing difficulty increased smoothly from 14 to 16% during the 12 years when survey administration remained unchanged. The proportion reporting that they had tried a hearing aid increased from 5 to 7% and stabilised at this level since 2011. The proportion who reported using their hearing aid most of the time increased from 47 to 52% during the 15-year period. The proportion who did not use their hearing aids at all decreased from 21 to 18% over the same period. Conclusions:In this extensively-surveyed population, approximately 20% of adults currently do not use their hearing aids at all, 30% use them some of the time and the remaining 50% most of the time. Hearing aids are valued by many, as judged by use, but there is substantial room for improvement. Inclusion of questions on use within a large-scale, regular national survey enables the collection of demonstrably reliable data.
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